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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26256358">The world ends with you (except you won't allow it)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LetoLeGaosaure/pseuds/LetoLeGaosaure'>LetoLeGaosaure</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Ending, Angst, Blood, Blood and Injury, Gun Wound, Injury, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 03:41:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,234</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26256358</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LetoLeGaosaure/pseuds/LetoLeGaosaure</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>One way or another, it's almost the end.<br/>(This is not the universe where it ends <i>well</i>.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hanekoma Sanae/Kitaniji Megumi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The world ends with you (except you won't allow it)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Time is ticking down, and it's all coming to a head. Megumi knows he's almost out of options, but he can't give up. Not with Shibuya's survival in the balance.</p><p>He'll fight. As many times as it takes, as long as he has time left on his palm, he'll fight.</p><p>He fights the Proxy, and he loses.</p><p>He fights him <i>again</i>, the Composer held in his grasp, and he loses. <i>Again.</i></p><p>And then it's too late.</p><p>The Composer smiles. Rises a gun toward Megumi.</p><p>There's a detonation, but no pain–</p><p><br/>
</p><p>–everything explodes in pain, radiating from the point where the bullet hit Sanae's chest. He shouldn't be surprised, and yet he can't help it. A normal wound shouldn't feel like his very Soul is shattered, but this is not a normal wound. Joshua meant for this bullet to Erase the Conductor.</p><p>Unfortunately, this might be enough to Erase an Angel.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>Neku gasps, shaken to his core. Joshua just shot Hanekoma. Joshua just <i>shot</i> Hanekoma.</p><p>(There are so many other things waiting to be processed. The identity of the Composer. That Game between Joshua and Kitaniji. The fact that next to him Shiki and Beat don't react. Shibuya's fate. But it's too much, especially when his brain has spent a whole week haunted by the sound of a gunshot.)</p><p>On Joshua's face, there is shock. Then incomprehension/betrayal/heartbreak and then <i>anger</i>.</p><p>At this point, Neku knows Joshua well enough to know that anger is only the easiest answer, not the whole of it.</p><p>"Sanae… How dare…" Joshua is seething. "So <i>that</i> is why you talked of a gun? For <i>this</i>?!"<br/>
"Sorry J. Can't let you destroy Shibuya."</p><p><br/>
</p><p>No. No no no no <i>no</i> this cannot be happening. Sanae should not even be <i>there</i>, even less getting hurt in his stead. Megumi can only stare at the back of that impossible man he loves, waiting for his brain to catch up.</p><p>"Megs," Sanae says, "you have an opening. Go–"</p><p>He's stopped by a cough, then another, and then his legs fold under him and horror chokes Megumi. He catches Sanae before he can fall and gently brings him down.</p><p>(Sanae is <i>Sanae</i>. Nothing should be able to really hurt him. He's the only real constant in this world.)</p><p>There's blood on Sanae's chin, blood on Sanae's shirt. Megumi feels the room spinning around him.</p><p>No no <i>no no no</i>…</p><p>"Megumi." Sanae has blood on his lips, but he's smiling. "Go save Shibuya."</p><p>For a second, Megumi does not –cannot– understand. Then, like a robot, he stands and attacks the Composer.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>Somewhere in the back of his mind, Neku is aware of his friends falling down like puppets without strings. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wonders why he doesn't fall with them.</p><p>Kitaniji and Joshua are fighting, and it's not pretty.</p><p>Actually, it hurts to look at it, hurts his eyes and his brain all together.</p><p>His eyes, his brain and his heart.</p><p>He doesn't want Joshua to get hurt. He's still, despite everything, his Partner.</p><p>He doesn't want Shibuya to be destroyed.</p><p>He doesn't want Hanekoma to die.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>Everything is blurry. And cold.</p><p>Everything except the hands holding his. Megumi should be fighting, not…</p><p>"Mr. H, please… Stay with me..."</p><p>Oh. Neku.</p><p>Neku, who could possibly have stopped Joshua, or maybe not. Despite all his foresight, Sanae had been unable to tell, this exact decision edging on too many small things, too many hesitations.</p><p>So he had made <i>sure</i>.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>"I'm sorry, Phones. That's not what… what I wanted for you."</p><p>Mr. H is <i>dying</i>, and he's apologizing to Neku.</p><p>Everything is unfair.</p><p>"Don't… don't talk," Neku manages, his throat wanting nothing more than to close and never let a word out ever again. "You… whoever… they can heal you, right? So just keep your energy…"</p><p>He doesn't even believe what he's saying. Hanekoma's shirt is <i>soaked</i> and no one, living or dead or in-between should lose that much blood. Neku is powerless. The only person he admired through his years of solitude is dying in front of him, and one of his Partners is fighting for his life, and Shibuya is on the line, and Neku is <i>powerless</i>.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>Sanae smiles.</p><p>For the first time in months, he feels calm. Serene.</p><p>"It's going to be alright," he tells Neku, because that's the truth. </p><p>He won't be there to see it, but Shibuya will thrive. He's at peace with that. And sure, he didn't want things to happen <i>this way</i> for Joshua, for Neku, for Megumi, but at the end of the day… it's worth it.</p><p>And even if he can't see the fight, can't even see Neku in more than broad strikes of color, he already knows how it'll end.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>Megumi is alive, and then the Composer is not. </p><p>He feels like the fight lasted <i>years</i>. Doesn't know how he's still standing. Is so out of breath that his vision blackens at the edge.</p><p>None of these matters.</p><p>
  <i>Shibuya is saved.</i>
</p><p>(None of these matters.)</p><p>Sanae… <i>Sanae</i>.</p><p>Megumi runs to him. Falls on his knees next to this stubborn, perfect individual who looks so <i>at peace</i> while Megumi's world is crumbling. He feels dizzy, and he's vaguely aware of the weight of Shibuya settling on his shoulders in more than a metaphorical way, but he <i>does not care</i>.</p><p>"Sanae…"</p><p>Sanae's shape is getting blurry, lines turning to static, and Megumi's voice is already breaking, on the verge of a sob–</p><p><br/>
</p><p>–and Megumi won, like Sanae knew he would. It's a shame he can't look at him, unable to see more than light and shadows now, but even through the lullaby of Shibuya's Music Sanae hears his voice, always.</p><p>"Thank you…" Sanae says.<br/>
"You… you can't be dying! Sanae!"</p><p>Megumi is begging, and Sanae is sad for him.</p><p>"I'm sorry I won't be there for your reign… but I know you'll be the Composer Shibuya needs."</p><p>The city is going to be a thing of beauty.</p><p>"I can't– I can't do it without you!" Megumi sobs.</p><p><i>You can,</i> Sanae would like to say, <i>I trust you.</i> But he has no breath anymore, everything is pain and blood and darkness and–</p><p><br/>
</p><p>– and Neku is alone with Shiki and Beat who don't move at all (are they… yes of course they are dead, everyone here is, but they're not <i>Erased</i>, because he saw Erased, they wouldn't have a body left if they were, like Hanekoma –<i>CAT</i>– got Erased, like Joshua –his Partner, the <i>Composer</i>– got Erased), and the Conductor, the Composer really, who's crying, crying, crying.</p><p>Neku sits between his Partners –his <i>friends</i>–, holds their hands, and waits, numb.</p><p>After a while, Kitaniji gets up, looks around and comes to him. He's become a bit too luminous to look directly at him, and Neku can't help but feel that he didn't notice yet.</p><p>"Sakuraba?"</p><p>His voice is firm but so <i>raw</i>.</p><p>Neku only nods.</p><p>"Do you want to… to forget this?"</p><p>There's no need to precise what "this" refers to. Neku tries to think of it. Through the utter <i>shock</i> of it all, he thinks that maybe, probably, he needs to keep this disaster in memory. Because he wouldn't understand the blank. Because he can't see how it could avoid leaving fault lines in his soul anyway.</p><p>Because he feels they both need to be remembered.</p><p>"No," he says. Then: "thank you."</p><p><br/>
</p><p>Then Megumi is <i>alone</i>.</p>
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